Signs of the times

$1.99/bag for 5 lbs of carrots!   To me it sounds like a misprint, but a large chain store is on sale with carrots at that price.  Worse yet, their competitors are undercutting that price.  For less than the price of a double cheeseburger, you can buy 5 lbs of healthy food.  What is going on here.  Chain stores seem hell bent on offering healthy alternatives to junk food at rock bottom prices.  I wish I could say carrots will outsell potato chips in Quebec this week, but I doubt it.  A huge success would be to sell 10,000 bags of carrots in a weeklong sale.  I don't doubt the chain sells more jumbo bags of chips in one afternoon.  Meanwhile, the cost to fill that bag of carrots is up, as is transportation.  I guess when enough farmers throw in the towel, the price will more realistically reflect the cost of production.  I guess that is the essential duality of the produce world.  Everyone who works in this business wants our customers to eat a healthy diet, but we also want to make a reasonable profit while supplying the components of that diet.